Vous Devez Faire Connaissance

Translation: You Must Get Acquainted

Since the age of 18 I have been sort of a nomad. I left my family, friends and all that I knew in Colorado and ran far, far away to attend college in Washington, DC. During the years I was in DC, I moved yearly from dorm to dorm as the Office of Residence Life (aka Housing) dictated, my poorly forwarded mail trying to keep up. After a bit of a breakdown, I decided that I had had enough of college and returned to my beloved mountains for a summer that turned into 2 years. When I had had enough of my "break" (I like to refer to it as My Sabbatical in order to downplay the fact that I randomly dropped out for 2 years) I went back to DC to finish school. Once I received my degree I moved to New Jersey for a job. That job took me all over the country and eventually to Germany, where I met Mr. Fox (go, go frequent flyer miles!). And now I am with my Foxy man in Europe... continuing the nomadism together.

Of course in between all the packing and taping and storing of stuff I managed to make some friends. Lots of them. And in spite of my tendency to be a wandering star, some of them stuck.

But through this constant moving around I have realized that I am terrible at keeping in touch with people (which I wrote about here). e.g. I'll get an email or a card or (long ago) a letter and I'd read it and smile and feel all warm and loved inside. Then I'd make a mental note to respond in kind.

And then I'd forget.

But since I keep everything... I'd run across said item months or years later and feel guilty for not responding and then make another mental note to write the person-in-question and play catch up.

And of course I'd forget again.

However, some of these people still love me and so I invited them to the wedding.

I invited friends from all the different stages in my life. Plenty of them will not make it because it is expensive. Several of them will. And for those that will, it's obvious but...

They may not know anyone else besides me.

Nobody really wants to be the party loner at a wedding. Source.

So actually I have realized that for some this will also be a deterrent.


Enter Facebook.

Blah, blah, blah Facebook. Source.

I hate Facebook. It has not made me better at sharing, it has made me worse (damned lack of privacy). But now is not the time to rant about social media, it is the time to embrace and celebrate it. Because, guess what?

Lots of the friends that still love me are on the dreaded FB. So I created an event for them to be able to virtually meet each other and network for finding travel and party buddies. Sometimes I'm clever.

Social media to the rescue, right?